Recently, thinning and miniaturization of a semiconductor device and its package have been increasingly demanded. Therefore, as the semiconductor device and its package, flip chip type semiconductor devices in which a semiconductor element such as a semiconductor chip is mounted (flip chip-connected) on a substrate by means of flip chip bonding have been widely utilized. In such flip chip connection, a semiconductor chip is fixed to a substrate in a form where a circuit face of the semiconductor chip is opposed to an electrode-formed face of the substrate. In such a semiconductor device or the like, there may be a case where the back surface of the semiconductor chip is protected with a protective film to prevent the semiconductor chip from damaging or the like (see, Patent Document 1 to 2).
However, for protecting the back surface of a semiconductor chip with the protective film above, a step of attaching the protective film to the back surface of a semiconductor chip obtained in a dicing step must be newly added. As a result, the number of steps is increased, and this brings about a rise in the production cost or the like.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2008-166451
Patent Document 2: JP-A-2008-006386
The present inventors have developed a dicing tape-integrated film for semiconductor back surface with an attempt to reduce the production cost and filed a patent application thereon (which has not been laid open to public inspection at the time of filing of the present invention). Such a dicing tape-integrated film for semiconductor back surface is required to ensure good adherent force of the film for semiconductor back surface to a semiconductor wafer in the dicing step. On the other hand, the dicing tape supporting the film for semiconductor back surface is required to satisfy good holding force on a ring frame, adherence to the film for semiconductor back surface so as to prevent scattering of semiconductor chips individualized by dicing, and low contamination by keeping the cutting debris generated during dicing from attaching to a semiconductor chip having the film for semiconductor back surface attached thereto.
Furthermore, also in a picking-up step that is the next step of the dicing step, the dicing tape supporting the film for semiconductor back surface is required to allow no generation of cracking, breakage, plastic deformation or the like of the base material even at the extension in the picking-up step and also exhibit good releasability enabling the semiconductor chip after dicing to be separated together with the film for semiconductor back surface from the dicing tape.
However, it has been never easy to bring out these characteristics in a balanced manner. In particular, the semiconductor chip is recently reduced in the thickness and increased in the area for the purpose of achieving high capacity, and it is very difficult for the dicing tape to satisfy various requirements. That is, the dicing tape can hardly respond to individual functions corresponding to various required characteristics and in turn, the characteristics required cannot be exerted in a balanced manner.